‘Eaters progress in loss

IRVINE — Like many others at this time of year, Molly Goodenbour is making a list.

And, with the way things have gone, the UC Irvine women’s basketball coach has learned that every day she needs to check it twice, in order to gauge which of her players will or won’t be able to answer the bell.

That list consisted of eight available athletes for the Anteaters’ nonconference home battle with Oregon State Thursday at the Bren Events Center. And UCI’s top player (junior Kelly Cochran) as well as its No. 2 scorer this season (junior Rebecca Maessen) were among those sidelined by injuries.

UCI was further hampered by foul trouble against the taller, quicker visitors. Two Anteaters fouled out, the first with 8:23 to play and the second with 5:13 remaining, and two other UCI players finished with four fouls.

But, despite the 71-42 win for the Beavers, who improved to 7-1 as they continue to surge toward the fringe of the Associated Press Top 25, Goodenbour was able to tick off a list of positives achieved by her team.

“I thought we did some good things,” Goodenbour said after the fourth straight loss for UCI (3-6). “Considering our circumstances, with some players injured or sick [6-foot-2 junior Milyana Cejic was too ill to be in uniform], I thought our focus tonight was 100% better than against a [Cal State] Bakersfield or a Weber State or a Hawaii [all losses]. We executed some of our offensive things much better against this [Oregon State] team, which is a much better team than Weber State [a 66-53 road setback Monday].”

Other pluses included a career-high 16 points from senior Kirian Ishizaki, who at one point made five straight field-goal attempts and was six of six from the foul line.

Junior guard Mary Has contributed five rebounds, three steals, two assists and one blocked shot to go with nine points. She remained aggressive to the end, despite a three-for-17 shooting performance from the field, including at least three shots that went in and out.

Raquel Theus, a sophomore whose father, Reggie, was fired Monday as coach of the Sacramento Kings, collected a career-high seven rebounds and scored a season-high three points, her first points in six games this season.

UCI finished at 35.7% from the field, just one of seven (14.3%) from three-point range and committed 18 turnovers, five more than the Beavers.

And while Oregon State made 25 of 54 field-goal tries (46.3%), and earned a 35-28 rebounding edge, Goodenbour also listed defense as an area with which she was encouraged.

“Our goal was to not let [Beavers guard Talisa Rhea, who earlier this season had 10 three-pointers against Sacramento State to break a Pac-10 record held by Goodenbour, a former Stanford star] hurt us,” Goodenbour said.

Rhea, who came in averaging a team-best 16.7 points per game, including 41.1% accuracy on 56 three-point attempts, managed just two points, both foul shots. She missed both of her field-goal attempts, both from threedom in a season-low scoring performance.

“And we stayed in our box-and-one [used mostly against other Oregon State guards],” Goodenbour said. “That’s a defense we’ll be able to use later on in the season.”

Goodenbour also praised her team’s overall offensive execution, and was most enthused about its willingness to consistently compete.

“Just mentally and physically, I thought we were a little tougher on the court,” Goodenbour said. “But we still made too many mistakes.”

Goodenbour said Maessen, averaging 13.1 points this season before rolling an ankle against Weber State, may return as soon as Sunday, when the Anteaters play host to UNC Greensboro at 2:30 p.m. on the first day of the two-day OC Clash tournament.

Goodenbour also said Cochran, who has averaged 6.8 points in four games, with playing time severely limited as she recovers from off-season knee surgery, could appear in one of the OC Clash games.

Cejic, who along with fellow Serbian Jovana Petrovic have played a combined eight games after awaiting eligibility clearance, could play Sunday.

“We joke about [being able to actually play a game with a fully loaded roster],” Ishizaki said. “But we’re also serious about it. If we can click together as a team with all our tools, I think we’re going to be able to compete in the Big West [Conference] like we haven’t before.”

Nonconference

Oregon State 71, UC Irvine 42

OSU – Ducker 4, Mitchell 18, Davis 18, Fox-Griffin 12, Rhea 0, Kennedy 7, Tilleman 6, Futch 4, Eskridge 2.

3-pt. goals – Davis 4, Fox-Griffin 1.

UCI – Ishizaki 16, Barnes 3, Has 9, Ke. Johnson 7, Ka. Johnson 2, Theus 3, Petrovic 2.

3-pt. goals – Ke. Johnson 1.

Fouled out – Petrovic, Theus.

Halftime – OSU, 41-20.

BARRY FAULKNER may be reached at (714) 966-4615 or at [email protected].